21 months

I am feeling a little guilty in regards to my mommy duty of record-keeping. Neither of my kids have a scrapbook. And although they do both have baby books, the amount that is written in them is pretty pathetic. This is especially true for Hudson. And since this blog has become my means of keeping a family record/history, I think it is time for a Hudson update.

Hudson is 21 months now, and is turning into such a cute, sweet, little boy. Several times a day, I find myself thinking about how much I love him, and how happy I am to have him in our family. He has a very sweet temperament, and is generally very happy. He loves to give hugs, kisses, and high-fives, and always wants to include everyone. Last weekend John and I went out on an anniversary date while my parents watched Makenna and Hudson. As we were picking them up, and saying good-bye, Hudson gave hugs and kisses to everyone at my parent's house, including my grandma and grandpa, and aunt who he hasn't been around much. He is very quick to warm up to people, and thus had a very easy transition to nursery. He has been happy to go since the first day.

Hudson is starting to talk more, but hasn't hit the 'verbal explosion' yet that Makenna hit at around this age. He still uses mostly 1 -word sentences, and probably has a vocabulary of about 3 dozen words that he uses regularly. He will attempt to repeat any word we ask him, but they aren't always easy to understand.

Hudson is a GREAT sleeper. His bedtime routine is short and sweet, and he goes to bed almost every night without a peep. He sleeps with his binkis (2 or them, which I need to get rid of soon), his blankie, and a soft teddy bear. He sleeps all night, and I don't hear from him until I go in to get him in the morning. He doesn't yell or cry for me, and often the only way I know he is awake is by walking into the room and checking on him. Sometimes I can hear him kicking his feet or jumping up and down in his crib, but usually he just rolls around and rests quietly until I go get him. He does the same thing with his naps.

Hudson still loves anything that makes loud noise and has wheels: cars, trucks, trains, lawn mowers, tractors, airplanes, etc. He loves playing with his little IKEA train set. More recently, Hudson has really started to enjoy playing with puzzles, and building towers with blocks. He also loves balls. Hudson is also engaging in a lot of pretend play. He loves to crawl around and pretend to be a puppy, or stomp after me or Makenna pretending to be a scary monster or dinosaur. He also loves for me to chase him around the house. Hudson and Makenna play really well together (most of the time), for which I am so grateful. To sum it up, Hudson is a pretty great little boy, and we love him to pieces!

Coloring on the Walls

Shortly after moving into our new house, we had an unfortunate incident involving Hudson, our freshly painted walls, and a black permanent marker. The spots have since been painted over, and the markers stored up high, but Hudson's ingenuity gave us an idea. John picked up a small can of dry erase board paint, and we painted a just-at-the-right-height section of wall at the bottom of our stairs going down to the unfinished basement.

We gave the kids some dry erase crayons, and told them to have at it. Of course they loved it. Makenna is very good at only coloring inside the blue tape. Hudson on the other hand seems to have no problem thinking (i.e. coloring) outside the box. But since his wandering artistic skills still occur on the unfinished walls of the basement stairwell, (and he does the majority of his coloring inside the designated area) we don't really worry about it.

And these two seem to be pretty happy with their new found freedom of being allowed to color on the walls.

Mowing the Lawn

As with almost everything in our new house, having our own lawn to mow is a first for us. Hudson is pretty much obsessed with anything that has wheels and makes a loud noise (trucks, tractors, motorcycles, lawn mowers, etc.) so he was VERY excited when John came home from Lowe's with his very own "mawn mowe" as he calls it. Mowing the grass is definitely a family event around here.

Household Projects

Since moving in, we have completed a few projects around the house. Our first major project was painting the garage. I was actually really excited for this project since it was going to be my first time painting anything on a large scale. I thought it would be fun! And it was for the first hour, but the fun gradually wore off, and for hours 2 - 15ish it seemed a lot more like work than fun. I think that the only person who enjoyed painting the whole time was Makenna! She would paint for awhile, and then go play and ride her bike around the garage, and then paint a little more. Since we were just painting the garage, we weren't too worried about perfection, so it was great to just let her paint to her little heart's content.
John took care of all the stuff up high. We spread the project over 2 very long, HOT days, and although it was a lot more work than I thought it would be, we are very happy with the end result.

Our 2nd big project was landscaping the patch of dirt in the front of our house.
Instead of going to a store to pick out some flowers to plant, I went to my mom and dad's house. Their landscaping, and flowers are amazing, and free! My dad dug up some flowers for me, and I brought them home to plant.
I thought that maybe I could get all the flowers planted before John got home from work, but I was very wrong! It took almost 3 hours just to get all the weeds out, and get the dirt ready. The kids were eager to help, and loved playing in the dirt.

When John got home from work he helped me get all of the flowers planted. We just made up a landscape design as we went. Perfect? No, but much better than the dirt and weeds we started with.

Our New Home

I've had a few requests to post some pictures of our new house, so here they are. After renting for almost 7 years, we are so excited to finally own our first home. It is double the size of anything we have lived in before, and we love all of the things that come with a house that we've never had before (i.e. our own yard, unfinished basement for storage and kids play area, and a 3-car garage). We are pretty much settled (only 1 box left to unpack...I think) but have done almost zero decorating. We finally just hung a few things on the walls last weekend, but have a long way to go. I've decided that I'm not very good at decorating, so if anyone is interested in volunteering to help me, I'm taking names!

The outside
Front entry way/stairs
Front 'flex' room

We have plans to make this room a home office, but for now it is mostly empty.

Family room

Eating area/Kitchen

Laundry room/mud room

Kids' bath upstairs

Master bedroom

4th of July Traditions

Spending the 4th of July at my parent's house on the lake is becoming a tradition for us, and one that I am happy we will be able to continue every year now that we live in Omaha. Usually my parents throw a big party with all of the extended family, but having just flown back into Omaha on Sunday night from my cousin's wedding in CA, they decided to have a smaller party, which meant only 26 more immediate family members, instead of the usual 70+ extended family members and friends.

The weather was beautiful, and we spent much of the afternoon and evening just playing in the water. Makenna went on her first water tube ride (unfortunately no pictures) and loved it! She was a little nervous to try it, but John and I went with her, and she thought it so much fun. Both of the kids love playing in the water with their cousins. They also love jumping off the dock into the water which they did over and over again.

Eventually we were able to drag them all out of the water, and after being in the sun and water for so long, they were all pretty hungry.

The night ended with some fireworks, which we did as the sun was still setting. We weren't patient enough to wait until it was really dark. Nor did we want the kids staying up 3 or 4 hours past bedtime.

And of course the kids got to do some sparklers. Hudson's first.

And what did we all think about our 4th of July celebrations? Hudson's face pretty much sums it up!

Wedding

After our pit stop at Niagara Falls, we drove down to Rochester, NY on Thursday afternoon for Joey and Marie's wedding. The wedding activities started on Thursday night, with a family/friends BBQ at a park. The kids ran around like crazy, which was just what they needed.

The wedding was on Friday in the Palmyra Temple. Makenna was lucky enough to be a flower girl, and was SO excited about her fancy orange dress. My cousin Lisa, who also happens to live in Rochester, made an adorable little matching bow tie for Hudson.

Marie with her bridesmaids and flower girls

The entire wedding party

Our attempt at a family photo. I guess Makenna decided she was done smiling nicely.

Hudson LOVES anything that makes loud noise and has wheels, tractors included.

After all of Makenna's 'official' wedding party photos were over, she decided that she wanted to take some more pictures. She went around asking me to take pictures of her with all of the other family members. Here are just a few.


Uncle Dan

Grandma CeCe

Grand-Da

After leaving the temple, we headed straight to the reception, which was a lot of fun. I was able to see and visit with my cousin Lisa and her husband Chris, and also spend some more time with John's brothers and their wives who we don't see very often. Hudson kept trying to escape outside during dinner, but as soon as the dancing started, both kids were well entertained. Makenna loved dancing with Marie, and we all had a great time.

We are so glad that we were able to make the trip out to NY; (even if it was 2300 miles and 4 days in the car!) it was well worth it to be there, and be a part of Joey and Marie's wedding.